Blagojevich to End Boycott of His Own Trial

Thursday

Jan 29, 2009 at 4:09 AM

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, who has boycotted his own impeachment trial, has now asked to address the Illinois Senate Thursday.

MALCOLM GAY

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — After boycotting his impeachment trial for three days, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich announced Wednesday that he wanted to address the State Senate on Thursday before legislators begin deliberations on whether to remove him from office.

“He wants to make a closing argument,” said Lucio Guerrero, the governor’s spokesman. Mr. Guerrero said he was uncertain when or precisely why Mr. Blagojevich had chosen now to attend the trial, which he has repeatedly denounced as unfair and fixed.

The governor will not give sworn testimony or be subject to cross-examination by prosecutors or legislators. Rather, he will address the Senate only to respond to the prosecution’s closing argument.

Mr. Blagojevich’s announcement, which came about an hour before the prosecution rested its case, brought negative reactions from lawmakers. Many had previously lamented the governor’s absence from the proceedings and had repeatedly requested he testify.

“It’s somewhat cowardly that he won’t take questions,” said Senator Dan Cronin, a Republican. “If he had something to say, he should have come down here like a man and faced the music.”

Since he will not be giving testimony, senators said his appearance would not be included as evidence in their deliberations.

“All the testimony was heard, so the things that we will consider, all that has taken place,” said Senator James F. Clayborne Jr., a Democrat. “I’m waiting to hear the closing argument tomorrow.”

During a publicity tour this week, Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat who was arrested Dec. 9 on federal corruption charges, repeatedly professed his innocence, complaining bitterly that many of the damning statements attributed to him had been taken out of context and saying the impeachment trial was unfair.

Senators here have denounced the publicity campaign. Earlier in the day, the Senate president, John Cullerton, a Democrat, challenged Mr. Blagojevich to appear. “If he wants to come down here, instead of hiding out in New York and having Larry King asking questions instead of the senators — I think he’s making a mistake.”

Still, Mr. Blagojevich’s charges seemed to rattle some senators, who worried the trial might appear politically motivated after the prosecution announced that it wanted to avoid redundant testimony and would call only 6 of its 13 scheduled witnesses.

“If you eliminate half the witnesses and you speed up the process, does that send the wrong signal?” asked Senator Dave Syverson, a Republican. “Everything is being done very much above board, in fact, we’re going overboard to make sure everything is done fair. It’s just the perception.”

Other senators said that even if the additional testimony was redundant, they would rather hear it out of an abundance of caution.

“I don’t know who has a cruise or vacation to go to, but we ought to take our time,” Senator Kirk Dillard, a Republican, told a crush of reporters in an early morning break from the trial. “I’ll sit here on Super Bowl Sunday if I have to.”

Amid the tumult of the proceedings on Wednesday, prosecutors painstakingly presented their final witness, William Holland, the state’s auditor general. He testified that starting in 2004 the Blagojevich administration endeavored to buy roughly 773,000 doses of a European flu vaccine that the Food and Drug Administration had prohibited.

“The drugs were never going to come in to the U.S. because they’d been prohibited by the F.D.A.,” Mr. Holland said under questioning. “The vaccines were shipped to Pakistan, where the last we heard they were destroyed.”

With the prosecution at rest, senators have only to hear closing arguments before casting votes on two issues. The first will be whether to remove the governor from office. The second will be to determine whether Mr. Blagojevich should be barred from holding office in the future.

While many senators said they were still waiting to hear the closing arguments before making their final decision, it seemed unlikely that Mr. Blagojevich, who is scheduled to speak for 90 minutes after arriving here on Thursday morning by plane, would be able to sway many to his side.

“This is typical of his style, the grand slam, the P.R. flourish,” said Senator Christine Radogno, the Republican minority leader. “It’s too bad he wasn’t here earlier in the week, I wish he had been.” She added, “I hope he has a ride home.”

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